Picking Parberries
by Dragonsbane1611
Summary: (SH-NLG) "You know what parberries are, Ron," Hermione told her husband when Neville and Luna had disapparated. "If I do, you'd better."


Note: This is part of a series of little bursts of Neville and Luna goodness (NLG), and all my NLG is backstory for the epic 'Supposed Happiness' by MoonCroww. If you want to fully understand the whole situation and future events … toddle over and check it out. Thanks. ~Lady Roxyeth, Dragonsbane  
  
Picking Parberries  
  
Tue.20.Jan.2004  
  
***  
  
  
  
Luna was laying on her back, propped up on her pillows a bit, one knee bent with the other leg crossed over it. Neville was sitting, leaning back a little on her legs and massaging her right hand in his. She had a sheet pulled up to her chest, her arms splayed out on either side, whilst he had part of the same sheet draped across his lap. He was tousle-haired with his slightly rounded cheeks and chin dusted with next-day stubble, his hazel eyes mirroring his contentment.  
  
"You know, I find that I'm quite partial to parberries," he announced, suddenly, looking out through the gap in the curtains across from him. The late morning sunlight filtered into the room and he sighed happily.  
  
"They really do exist, you know," she smiled, looking at the side of his head.  
  
He turned an incredulous look on her and quirked an eyebrow.  
  
"Oh, I know."  
  
"No, they do," she insisted, starting to laugh at the faces he was making at her. "Father brought home a cluster of them when I was little. He told me of a time once when he was young and he wandered to close to a parberry vine. He went to partake of the fruit and the branch came together around him, pinching him all over. He was left with little purple marks everywhere. Concerning last night, I just thought random conversation on plant-life may seduce you enough to at least meander down the hall."  
  
It was then that Neville understood the parallel between picking parberries and connubial activities.  
  
"Did they pinch you?" he asked, simply, raising both eyebrows inquisitively.  
  
"I never ventured close enough to find out.   
  
"I think daddy was just trying to keep you out of the blackberries."  
  
She feigned shock and he moved to lay down beside her, head resting in his palm. The scent of strawberries still clung to the blonde before him and he couldn't help but smile.  
  
"Are you calling my father a liar?"  
  
"No," he replied emphatically, shaking his head a little. "Merely keen on keeping his blackberry stash in stock."  
  
"Father doesn't like blackberries," Luna informed him pointedly. "He made blackberry crumble for me."  
  
"Consider my point my proven," he grinned.  
  
"Tut."  
  
Neville closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  
  
"Ah, the sweet sound of victory."  
  
She swatted him playfully on the arm and he laughed opening his eyes again to look into her twinkling blue ones.  
  
"What is on your agenda for the day?" she asked, smiling.  
  
"I'm afraid that I have to go to work."  
  
"Why?" Her disappointment was obvious.  
  
"Sorry, but we have to have money. Dying together is fine, but not when we've just started."  
  
"You didn't work yesterday," she reminded him, pouting a little.  
  
"Of course I didn't work yesterday. I was picking parberries yesterday."  
  
"Do you really like working there?"  
  
"I love the greenhouse, it's wonderful. Last week, they planted a new batch of venomous tentacula, and they're fascinating to see, even this early on." He stopped suddenly when she placed a hand on his chest. "Listen to me, babbling about plants and going to work when I'm laying next to my beautiful wife of two days."  
  
"Babble all you want."  
  
Neville blushed.  
  
"Don't go to the greenhouse today."  
  
"Luna, honestly, I really should …"  
  
She stopped him with a kiss.  
  
"Let's go to Diagon Alley," he offered when she pulled away.  
  
"Let's."  
  
***  
  
  
  
Luna clasped Neville's hand tightly as they strolled through Diagon Alley, happily consuming the ice cream cones he'd got for them at Florean Fortescue's. From time to time, she would look up at him and kiss his now clean-shaven cheek or he would pretend to stumble and bump into her ("Oh, I'm sorry, excuse me"). They'd laugh and continue their walk in the October breeze.  
  
They passed by the bright, flashing sign that attracted people to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and Neville smiled, thinking of his friends.  
  
"I'd love to have my own shop one day," he said quietly, finishing his ice cream and looking around at all the people.  
  
"That would be wonderful," she agreed, leaning into him and placing her head on his shoulder. "Wouldn't it be something if we had our own botanical garden someday?"  
  
He smiled and leaned his head against hers.  
  
"That would be something," he sighed, smiling at her ability to make every dream, impossible as it may be, sound very real and achievable.  
  
"Oh, Neville look!" she exclaimed suddenly, pointing. She pulled him to a building with darkened, dusty windows and a parchment adhered to the door. "It's up for sale, Neville. Look! We could … we could buy this."  
  
Neville was reading the parchment over her shoulder and found himself quickly calculating the money he'd saved up and wondering how much it would take to open his own place.  
  
"I don't know, Luna. I'd love to, but I don't know …"  
  
"We can do this, Neville. Together."  
  
Her eyes sparkled with excitement, pleading with him. He forgot about the money and the unlikelihood of it all, and smiled.  
  
"And we will."  
  
She bounced up and down in front of him with her arms around his neck and kissed him. He grabber her, suspending her in the air for a moment, and squeezed her before setting her back on her feet.  
  
"I know just what to call it," she thought aloud, rereading the parchment and taking down the seller's contact information.  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
Harry grinned and clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder.  
  
"That's great, Neville. Where is it going to be?"  
  
"Five shops down from Fred's and George's, across the street."  
  
Luna was talking excitedly to Ginny, but she made eye-contact with her husband and sent a glittering gaze his way. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked back to Harry.  
  
"Ron will be here any minute," Harry told him. "Come in and have a seat."  
  
Neville followed him into the kitchen and took a seat at the table.  
  
"This is worthy of butterbeer," the bespectacled man said, finding four bottles and setting them on the table. "Butterbeer, Luna?"  
  
"Thanks," the blonde woman said, taking an empty seat next to Neville as Harry held a chair out for Ginny. Under the table, Luna squeezed her husband's knee and he smiled, surprisingly, without blushing. He covered her hand with his left.  
  
Two pops signaled the arrival of Ron and Hermione Weasley.  
  
"Starting the party without me?" Ron asked, grabbing Harry's untouched butterbeer and taking a swig.  
  
"I was saving that just for you," Harry said in mock indignance.  
  
Ginny patted her husband's arm, standing and retrieving two more bottles of the sweet ale, handing one to Hermione before returning to her seat and giving Harry his.  
  
"Neville and Luna were just telling us that they've bought a shop together in Diagon Alley," she informed the new arrivals as they took the two remaining empty seats at the table.  
  
"Wicked," Ron declared, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.  
  
Hermione frowned at him, but turned a warm smile on Neville and Luna.  
  
"A nursery, I assume," she inquired, sipping her butterbeer and, unlike her husband, choosing not to dribble it down her chin.  
  
"Yes, we've got a name chosen and everything," Luna breathed, almost shaking with excitement, her right hand still firmly planted on Neville's knee.  
  
"Well, come on, then, let's have it," Ron intoned.  
  
Neville and his wife shared a smile and he said, "Longbottom's Frondescent Foliage," while draping his left arm over the back of Luna's chair.  
  
"Let me guess, Luna's idea?" Harry asked, chuckling, but not spitefully.  
  
"It's memorable," Ginny commented, laughing.  
  
"Memorable? I can hardly say it, let alone remember it," Ron joked.  
  
Hermione was wide-eyed, her gaze shifting to and fro from Luna's left hand, wrapped around a butterbeer bottle and Neville's, clasped protectively on Luna's shoulder. Neville saw this and took a deep breath, waiting for her to speak.  
  
"When did you do that?" she managed after a moment.  
  
"Just today," Harry cut in.  
  
Ginny caught the glimmer of the small diamond on Luna's left ring finger and gasped.  
  
"No, that!"  
  
The men looked to where their wives were focusing. Luna just giggled and flattened her hand on the table, displaying the ring Neville had given her at the private ceremony. Her husband hugged her with one arm.  
  
"The day before yesterday," he told their friends.  
  
"Why didn't you tell us?" Hermione wanted to know, "We would have loved to have been there."  
  
"Let's have a look," Harry provoked, leaning to look at the ring. Ron seemed to be in shock.  
  
"It wasn't anything big. Just the two of us and the official," Luna explained.  
  
"I couldn't give you a bachelor party," Ron said, finally. Harry and Neville laughed at this, remembering how much Ron enjoyed Harry's and his own. Hermione looked disdainfully at her husband while Ginny seemed unsure of what to think.  
  
"That's alright," Neville assured his red-haired friend. "It was something we decided to do and we did it."  
  
"I stopped by the greenhouse last night after training," Hermione began, "and now I know why you weren't there."  
  
"Oh, yesterday. I took the day off."  
  
"We spent the day picking parberries," Luna chimed in, moving her hand to lightly caress the inside of Neville's thigh. He grinned and nodded in agreement.  
  
Hermione brought a hand to her mouth and tried to hide a smile. Ginny blushed a little and bit her lip to keep from grinning.  
  
"Parberries?" Harry asked, quirking an eyebrow.  
  
"Pinching parberries, yes," Neville added.  
  
"I've never heard of parberries," Ron interjected.  
  
"Like blackberries, right?" Hermione looked at Luna for confirmation.  
  
Ron looked at his wife bemusedly.  
  
"You know what pinching parberries are?"  
  
Ginny put a hand under the table and Harry's eyes widened for a moment.  
  
"Oh, parberries," he exclaimed in understanding. Ron looked at his friend for answers but got none.  
  
"In fact, honey," Luna began, looking at her husband. "I seem to remember some that we missed yesterday."  
  
Neville grinned.  
  
"We'd better go home and get those."  
  
Hermione, Harry and Ginny gave them all-knowing smiles while Ron raised his eyebrows and shook his head, giving up.  
  
"Congratulations," Hermione said as the Longbottoms stood up and prepared to disapparate.  
  
"We'll see you later."  
  
"Later," Ron said, with a wave.  
  
"Have fun," called Ginny.  
  
"With those parberries," Harry finished.  
  
Pop! Pop!  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
©2004 – Roxanne L. Martin, Writings From Behind The Red Door 


End file.
